Lord Speaker statement on parliamentary security
29 March 2017 (updated on 29 March 2017)
The Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, made a statement in the House of Lords on parliamentary security following the incident in Westminster on Wednesday 22 March.
Lord Fowler said:
'My Lords, I would like to make a short statement about Parliament's response to the tragic events of last Wednesday. As would be normal after such events, we are seeking to make sure that any lessons are learned, and we will do this through two reviews.
First, Mr Speaker in the Commons and I are commissioning an external independent review of how the perimeter of the Parliamentary Estate – including out-buildings – is secured and protected. We plan to produce a preliminary report by the end of April.
Secondly, at the same time, the Clerks of both Houses are commissioning an externally-led review of the lessons learned from the operation inside Parliament of the Incident Management Framework. This is to report by the end of June.
All Members will shortly receive an invitation to contribute their views and their experiences of that day to aid these reviews.
My Lords, Members will be aware that today marks exactly a week on from the shocking events of March the 22nd. Once again we send our condolences and sympathies to all those affected. Our thoughts will be in particular with the Metropolitan Police as they mourn their colleague PC Keith Palmer.'